As part of his campaign to give Cumbria the best broadband and mobile coverage in rural Europe Rory in association with cloud-computing company FarmWizard and their on-farm partner Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC UK), on Friday 20 April 2012 launched FarmWizard’s new Smartphone/tablet web application for livestock farm management at an event held at Cumbrian dairy producer Robert Craig’s Ainstable dairy farm. This is the latest in a series of pilots that Rory is hosting in Penrith and the Border, to showcase the best international technology opportunities to Cumbrians.

The brand new app for Android, i-Phone, Blackberry and a range of tablet computers will allow livestock farmers to access animal information directly onto their phones without the need to access a computer. Events such as medical treatments, calvings and other breeding events can be recorded using a handset and then synchronised with the main FarmWizard website, automatically updating a livestock movement book, BCMS and if needed Holstein UK and either NMR or CIS milk records. The new web app’s offline accessibility allows for information to be accessed and recorded without a data connection, which can then be synchronised when within 3G or wi-fi coverage.

Commenting at the launch Rory said: “Given our major investments in broadband and mobile infrastructure, we need now to illustrate why this is so important, and how constituents can best make use of these advances. In the case of our farming community – where farmers are already required to tag and trace their stock – we can see directly how better broadband and mobile infrastructure can improve farm management techniques, thanks to applications such as this one. This, in turn, can only be a boon to our rural economy, and helps make farming more attractive to younger and perhaps more tech-savvy farmers, too. I’m delighted that FarmWizard and LIC chose to pilot this in my constituency. Now that most livestock farmers have smartphones this new web app from FarmWizard means that they can access vital livestock information wherever and whenever they need it. In real terms this means that livestock farmers will save time maintaining records and be able to use the data on the smartphone to make instant business decisions ‘on farm’.”

Terry Canning, FarmWizard founder, said: “FarmWizard are proud to be the first management solution available in Europe that can allow a livestock farmer to completely manage their herd using Smartphone technology on a cloud computing platform. We were impressed with Rory’s pro-active approach in helping his farming constituents and thought that Penrith would be a great location to launch this new technology.”